Beach toys
I seem rather obsessed with the sea and beach these days…
Kids with boards
Cote d’Azur
I miss the beach and the sea…
Brighton 2011
My mum came to visit me in London and I took her to Brighton. Now, I’m generally not a fan of English seaside towns but I do love Brighton.
LA baby
The last leg of my Californian trip took me to Los Angeles. I was only there for 4 days and I wish I could have stayed a little longer.
I loved LA. Sure, the city isn’t particularly beautiful, it is HUGE and not having a car whilst you are there is pretty much unthinkable but… well… I love driving for one and even more when it is along boulevards bordered by gigantic palm trees, and two I love the weather, the beaches (omg they are beau-ti-ful), the parks and the food. Plus, the countryside/desert isn’t so far away should you wish to escape the craziness of it all. I also had the chance to experience the Los Angeles fog/smog, which is really thick in the morning but is quickly burnt out by the sun by lunch time. It gives the city an eerie atmosphere that I found very enchanting although, well yes, it is probably not so good for your lungs!
The 4 days I spent in LA were pretty low key. I hung out with my friend, the gorgeous Kim Anh, and crew (check out Booby Trap! and Saint Le Roq). We saw The Skin I Live In at the movies, which I thoroughly recommend, went to the beach, drank coffees at Intelligentsia in Silver Lake, drove the Mulholland Dr, visited the Griffith Observatory and spent 2 days at a pool party with some really lovely people. No need to say that the trip back to cold and wet London was the last thing I wanted to do…
On the road
After spending a few days in San Francisco, I took the road along the coast, the Highway 1, and drove all the way down to Los Angeles. I stopped many many times on the way, mainly because the scenery is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I stayed the night in a yurt at the Treebones Resort, which is about an hour’s drive south of Big Sur village. The location of Treebones couldn’t be better, nestled between the hills and the ocean. The place is so remote that there is no mobile reception, how peaceful. And having one’s breakfast perched on a stool facing the ocean is a real delight. The food was good too! However, unfortunately that night they were out of electricity and so we had to make do with candles. Romantic I suppose.
The next day I hit the road again and saw the Elephant Seals rookery at Piedras Blancas and then ate clam chowder for the first time in my life. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Oh and I also had fish tacos, which were yummy too. The place is called Splash Cafe and is in Pismo Beach.
Then quickly after that came Santa Barbara and the HUGE highways getting into LA…
Gimme! coffee
Devil’s horns
Old souvenir from Paris
Paris, 2006.
San Francisco
After the few days I spent in New York City back in October I flew to San Francisco… The weather was freakishly hot and sunny for the season (no fog!), which was a very welcome bonus! After the urban jungle madness of New York City, San Francisco felt like a haven of… quietness…
San Franciscans are super friendly and lovely but what I particularly like about them is their sense of civil responsibilities and eco-gay-whatevs-friendliness.
I ate a lot again in San Francisco. Wow, the food was really amazing. But I did do other things too. I walked – a lot (Haight, The Castro, The Mission, Fisherman’s Wharf great food and market!, Nob Hill, Financial District…) – , I saw great art at the SFMOMA, cycled over the Golden Gate bridge, and partied with the lovely Dr Sleep (Dots & Loops, Dial Up) and the Honey Soundsystem crew.
Where to go? (thanks again to Kim Ann for her great tips!)
- Papalote: super delicious burritos. Go to the location on 24th street and order the “super chicken mole burrito”. The chips and salsa are amazing, you can also get a jar of that salsa to go.
- Kabuto: the best Japanese restaurant I’ve ever been to (5121 Geary Boulevard (@ 15th Ave)
- Boulange de Cole Valley: bakery and patisserie (1000 Cole St.)
- Zazie: amazing for brunch (941 Cole St.)
- Lexington has good Bloody Marys, so does Wild Side West
- Honey Soundsystem party on Sunday nights. Great music!
- Hardfrench: daytime dance party at El Rio
There is so much more but I’ll have to wait until my next trip to SF!
Blue blue sky….
Dogs…
And bikes…
Oh and of course…. hills!
Pause series
The Golden Gate
A red ball in the sky
I saw tonight one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen. This was by the artisan market at Antananarivo, Madagascar. The sun looked like a red marble hanging from the foggy sky. Breathtaking.
Candy 3
London peeps, Candy 3 has arrived and can be purchased from Claire de Rouen. You better be quick, they literally sell like hot cakes! You can also get the 388-page magazine from Luis Venegas’ website. There are only 1000 copies!
Chloë Sevigny-as-Terry Richardson (and photographed by the man himself) graces the cover of this issue. Besides a great interview/photoshoot of Chloë, you will find, amongst other things, some rarely shown photographs by Cindy Sherman, JD Samson looking awesome, the great Jenny Shimizu, Lea T, Andrej Pejic, and my piece on the amazing Alice Temple.
Go get it, you know you want it!
Peter Funch
Check out Danish photographer Peter Funch‘s awesome photographs below. In his Babel Tales project he’s photographed New York’s population and reconstructed an urban tableau with people of similar characteristics for each single image. The end result is arresting. Each photograph is beautiful in composition and colour and is the work of extremely skillful digital manipulation. A thousand familiar faces in the big metropolis.
